Meditations from Proverbs 9 on Lady Wisdom, Part 5
12 If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scoff, you alone will bear it.
How is it that God finishes this section on personal growth in Proverbs 9 with this particular verse? This speaks volumes about personal responsibility and accountability. We are not victims of our circumstances, because we determine how we will respond to them. We don’t have control over the hand that is dealt us, but we control how we make the best of that hand. We decide how much we will invest in ourselves, in our growth.
The greatest return on investment is the investment that we make in ourselves. As we are better equipped and as we change our thinking, we grow. The more we grow, the more rewards we reap. And the more we grow, the more effect we will have on others.
The word scoff means to speak derisively; mock; jeer. The scoffer is the skeptic who says you can’t. The scoffer believes that everything is bad and it won’t get better, so why even try. And, of course, if you don’t try to change, nothing will change. You are stuck, sentenced by yourself to a dungeon of hopeless despair.
So guess what? We get to live with the choices we make. If we want to live a life of skepticism and be a victim of our politicians and the weak economy our dysfunctional family backgrounds and our present problems, then we get to stay there. God will let us do that. He will let us reap what we sow.
It is not God’s fault if we are stuck; for Wisdom is going out of her way to call us into her feast and help us learn and grow and become people that we are not yet. She invites us to change and experience God’s power in doing so. But God does give us a choice if we want to respond to her call or not.
Why do you think God gives us responsibility instead of doing those things for us?